Feds Propose $940M Settlement With Tribes Over Contract Shortfalls
The U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday a proposed $940 million landmark settlement with Native American tribes over contract shortfalls.
This dispute goes back decades.
Under the 1975 Indian Self Determination Act, tribes have local control over services like road maintenance, fire and police, but the federal government pays for them. It’s all spelled out in contracts.
But Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn said sometimes the appropriations weren’t enough.
“Some kinks have taken a while to work out,” Washburn said. “For several years, Congress did not appropriate enough money for all the contract costs that we were required by statute to pay. That sometimes created a gap between what we promised to pay and what we actually paid.”
More than 600 members of the class action suit will review the settlement and decide whether to appeal.
In the president’s fiscal year 2016 budget request to Congress for the Departments of the Interior and Health and Human Services, the administration proposed a long-term solution to this persistent problem: mandatory, non-discretionary funding for contract support costs.
